1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates, in general, to free-size caps and, more particularly, to a free-size cap with the gores of the crown being made of double-knit weft knitted fabrics having a weft directional elongation higher than 50%, the crown thus having a high ventilation effect, a high flexibility, a desired tightness, and allowing a user to feel comfortable while wearing the cap, the free-size cap being also designed in that one reference-sized cap is commonly and freely usable by users having head sizes different from each other within a difference of about 12 cm, the free-size cap being further provided with a sweat band made of an elastic woven fabric having both a weft directional elongation higher than 65% and an elastic recovery higher than 95%, thus almost completely overcoming the problem of a row elastic recovery derived from the crown made of such weft knitted fabrics.
2. Description of the Prior Art
As well known to those skilled in the art, free-size caps or caps of the one-size-fits-all type are designed in that one reference-sized cap is commonly usable by users having different head sizes within a range. Conventional free-size caps may be referred to Korean Patent No. 92,219 or U.S. Pat. No. 5,715,540. In the above free-size caps, the crown comprises six gores individually made of an elastic woven fabric manufactured by weaving polyurethane monofilament yarns, such as spandex yarns, as wefts and non-stretchable yarns as warps. In addition, the sweat band for the above free-size caps is made of an elastic woven fabric manufactured by weaving polyurethane monofilament yarns as wefts and non-stretchable yarns as warps in the same manner as that described for the crown.
However, such a conventional free-size cap is problematic in that the elastic woven fabric of the crown undesirably has a low elongation and a low elastic recovery since the fabric is manufactured by binding stretchable wefts and non-stretchable warps together. Due to the low elongation and low elastic recovery, the above free-size cap, manufactured at a single reference size, is only usable by users having head sizes different from each other within a difference of about 6 cm, more precisely, 6.35 cm (about 2.5 inches). In a detailed description, the conventional small-sized free-size caps (54 cm) are usable by users having head sizes of 54 cm.about.60 cm, the medium-sized free-size caps (60 cm) are usable by users having head sizes of 60 cm.about.66 cm, and the large-sized free-size caps (66 cm) are usable by users having head sizes of 66 cm.about.72 cm. Therefore, it is necessary for users, having head sizes of 54 cm.about.72 cm, to individually select one of the three types of free-size caps. This finally limits use of the conventional free-size caps. In addition, since the elastic woven fabric of the crown has an effective elongation of 25%.+-.2%, the crown of the conventional free-size caps is somewhat stiff and fails to allow a user to feel comfortable while wearing a cap.
The sweat band of the above free-size caps is made of an elastic woven fabric using polyurethane monofilament yarns as stretchable wefts. The sweat band thus fails to have a desired elongation higher than 65% or a desired elastic recovery higher than 95%, both being necessarily needed to accomplish both a desired flexibility and a desired touch of sweat bands.
The conventional free-size caps are designed to be usable by users, having head sizes of 54 cm.about.72 cm. However, a recent research report discloses that such free-size caps are mainly used by persons having head sizes of 45 cm.about.69 cm, or by infants, youngsters and adults. The conventional free-size caps thus fail to completely meet a requirement of such main users of the recent years.
U.S. Pat. No. 3,337,877 discloses a free-size cap, of which the side and rear gores of the crown are individually made of a foam material, such as sponge, with tricot warp knitted fabrics being attached to both surfaces of the foam material using a bonding agent. This free-size cap is originally designed to be stretchable in a horizontal direction at the side and rear gores of the crown and to allow a user to feel comfortable due to the cushion of the foam material while wearing the cap.
However, since the tricot warp knitted fabrics are attached to both surfaces of the foam material using a bonding agent, the crown fails to accomplish a desirable elongation. The elongation and elastic recovery of the above cap are only determined by those of the foam material, and so the use of one reference-sized cap is limited. It is thus necessary for manufacturers of caps to produce a plurality of reference-sized caps in order to meet a requirement of users having different head sizes. In addition, the front portion of the crown corresponding to the forehead of a user is free from a sweat band, and so the cap fails to effectively and quickly absorb and remove sweat from the forehead of the user. The cap thus undesirably allows sweat to flow from the forehead down on the face of the user, thereby being inconvenient to the user while wearing the cap. Another problem of the above free-size cap resides in that the elastic recovery of the crown is remarkably reduced at the side and rear gores made of the foam material covered with the tricot warp woven fabrics when the cap is used for a lengthy period of time. In such a case, it is impossible for the cap to be comfortably fitted on the head of a user, and so the cap loses the desired tightness.